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Baidarie | Experience Sharing Workshop on Integrated Support to HBWs 1

Report on

Experience Sharing & Advocacy Workshop

Integrated Support Program to Home Based Workers

(Technical and Financial Support provided by ILO & UN-WOMEN)

Sialkot

January 29 & 30, 2011


Acronyms

BISP Benazir Income Support Program

CSO Civil Society Organizations

DCO District Coordination Officer

EDO Executive District Officer

EOBI Employees’ Old Age Benefits Institution

HNP Home Net Pakistan

FPAP Family Planning Association of Pakistan

HBW Home Based Workers

HBWWG Home Based Workers Working Group

ILO International Labour Organization

IP Implementing Partner

MBO Membership Based Organization

MFI Micro Finance Institution

MoLM Ministry of Labour and Manpower

MoWD Ministry of Women Development

NCHD National Commission for Human Development

NGO Non Governmental Organization

PPAF Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund

SAFWCO Sindh Agriculture & Forest Workers’ Cooperative

SCCI Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industries

TRDP Thardeep Rural Development Program

UNIFEM UN Agency for Women Development

WWF Workers’ Welfare Fund

WDD Women Development Department


Table of Contents Acronyms ................................................................................................................................. 2

Background .......................................................................................................................... 4

Situation in Pakistan ............................................................................................................. 4

ILO: Towards Gender Parity in Pakistan ............................................................................... 5

UN-Women: Towards Gender Equality: Women’s Economic Empowerment – Home-Based

Workers ............................................................................................................................... 6

Experience Sharing Workshop .............................................................................................. 7

Participants .......................................................................................................................... 7

Progress Review Meeting (29th

January 2011) ...................................................................... 9

Welcome by Baidarie ....................................................................................................... 9

Comments by UN-Women ................................................................................................ 9

ILO Remarks ..................................................................................................................... 9

Presentation by Baidarie ................................................................................................ 10

Question Answer Session: .............................................................................................. 12

Conclusion of the Experience Sharing Meeting ............................................................... 12

Field Visit ........................................................................................................................... 13

Debriefing on Field Mission ................................................................................................ 15

Progress Review by other Partners ..................................................................................... 16

Assessment of Progress on “Decent Work Deficits” for HBWs ............................................ 19

Advocacy Event for Home-Based Workers.............................................................................. 20

Remarks by Chief Guest ..................................................................................................... 20

Remarks by UN-Women ..................................................................................................... 21

Remarks by ILO .................................................................................................................. 21

Presentation by Baidarie .................................................................................................... 22

Welcome Remarks ............................................................................................................. 23

Participants – Review Meeting ....................................................................................... 25

AGENDA FOR REVIEW MEETING ..................................................................................... 26

Participants of Advocacy Workshop for HBWs ................................................................ 27

Progress Review on overcoming “Decent Work Deficits” ................................................ 28


Background

‘Home-based worker’ refers to the general category of workers, within the informal or

unorganized sector, who carry out remunerative work within their homes or in the

surrounding grounds. However, the term ‘home-based work’ encompasses a wide diversity.

Home-based workers do piecework for an employer, who can be a subcontractor, agent or a

middleman, or they can be self-employed on their own or in family enterprises. They can work

in the new economy (assembling micro-electronics) or the old (weaving carpets). Home-based

workers are not confined to the developing countries only but are found in developed

countries as well. It is estimated that there are over 100 million home-based workers in the

world and more than half this number are in South Asia – of whom around 80% are women.1

ILO has adopted convention No.177 for Home Based Workers – which calls upon the member

Countries to adopt, implement and periodically review a national policy on home work aimed

at improving the situation of home workers, in consultation with the most representative

organizations of employers and workers and, where they exist, with organizations concerned

with home workers and those of employers of home workers.

Situation in Pakistan

Pakistan has neither adopted C-177 of ILO nor it has a Policy on Home-Based Workers (HBW).

In the past, the UNIFEM (now renamed as UN-Women) had facilitated a large number of

discussions and consultations with Pakistani civil society to highlight the plight of HBWs in

Pakistan.

Later on, after a number of national and provincial consultations, supported by ILO & UN-

Women, a draft National Policy on HBW was prepared which was routed through the Ministry

of Women Development (MoWD) to the Ministry of Labour & Manpower (MoLM) for final

endorsement – which is in process right now.

Both ILO and UN-Women are committed to support the Government of Pakistan (through

Ministry of Labour & Manpower) to process this much needed national policy.

1 There is a fine line difference between Home-Based Workers and Domestic Workers. HBWs work in “their own” homes or ground, while Domestic Workers work in “others” houses. They have completely different set of problems.


ILO: Towards Gender Parity in Pakistan

ILO in Pakistan is currently implementing a project titled “Towards Gender Parity in Pakistan

(TGP)” which aims to contribute towards promoting gender-responsive policies and work

practices in the country.

Among various other interventions, the Project has a major focus on promoting Decent Work

for the informal / home-based workers – which constitute more than 70% of the workforce

and yet not given full rights. The project has adopted a three tier strategy to address this issue

effectively:

a. Policy level support

a) Supporting an advocacy campaign through national civil society organizations

b) Technical Assistance to the Ministry of Labour & Manpower (MoLM) for reviewing

and processing the draft national policy on HBWs

b. Institutional level support

a) Mobilized Workers & Employers to support HBWs policy as well as support HBWs

through their regular programs

b) Advocacy campaign with social security institutions (Employees Social Security

Institutions, Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution, Workers Welfare Fund etc) to

include HBWs in their program

c) Facilitated an exposure visit to Philippines & Thailand for key national Labour-

Market Stakeholders to learn from their experiences on including HBWs in

national policies and programs.

c. Grassroots level support

a) Five pilot programs have been started to provide integrated support to HBWs

while focusing on nine Decent Work Deficits (mentioned above). These pilot

programs are jointly funded by ILO and UN-Women and are being implemented by

the following partners in different locations:

S.# Name of Partner

Agency

Location Target Group

1. HomeNet Pakistan Kasur (Punjab) Chik-makers (bamboo

blinds)

2. Baidarie Sialkot (Punjab) Football Stitchers

3. Rahnuma-FPAP Faisalabad (Punjab) Quilt-makers

4. SAFWCO Hyderabad (Sindh) Handicraft makers

5. TRDP Mithi (Sindh) Handicraft makers


UN-Women: Towards Gender Equality: Women’s Economic

Empowerment – Home-Based Workers

UN Women’s programme on economic security and rights entitled, ‘Towards Gender Equality:

Women’s Economic Empowerment-Home Based Workers has the following objectives,

• Make home based workers and their issues visible.

• Advocate for national policies for home based workers in Pakistan.

• Strengthen the grassroots and particularly the membership-based organizations of

home based workers in Pakistan.

• Create and strengthen South Asia Network of home based workers and their

organizations.

The main achievements of the programme are in the areas of policy advocacy and outreach,

creating and strengthening partnerships, raising awareness and building capacity, and

facilitating policy dialogue with the goal of enhancing women’s human rights. The programme

has achieved the following specific results in 2009 and 2010.

� Home Based Workers Policy drafted and handed over to the Ministry of

Labour (MoL) by the Ministry of Women’s Development after following an

extensive consultative process with stakeholders.

� Home Based Workers Resolutions were passed by 3 Provincial Assemblies

(Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh) asserting the need for recognition of home

based workers as workers and establishing minimum wages.

� Advocacy and networking role of HomeNet Pakistan (a representative

umbrella network of home based workers mainly involved in the advocacy and

capacity building of the home based workers organizations) was strengthened

through undertaking a rigorous process of institutional capacity enhancement.

UN Women is the founder member of Home Based Workers Working Group (HBWWG), a

national level body working for enhanced coordination on advocacy related initiatives for

HBWs amongst various government and non-governmental organizations.

The media campaign to highlight home based workers issues is being carried out. Posters,

radio programmes, leaflets, booklets are developed on home based workers issues and TV talk

shows, and other initiatives are in the process.

UN Women facilitated an exposure visit to Nepal including a delegation of high officials from

the provincial WDDs, Labour Department Balochistan, MoWD and CSOs partners working on

HBW issues to learn from their counterparts and share their experiences. A follow up regional

activity was arranged in Islamabad in august 2010 and Ministry of Labor, Labour Departments,


MoWD and WDDs participated in it and brought forth meaningful recommendations for Home

based workers policy issues

UN Women collaborated with ILO, Ministry of Labour, MoWD and NGOs (Baidarie, TRDP,

FPAP, SAFWCO, HNP) to develop 5 small scale projects on providing integrated support to

home based workers in four project areas in Sindh and Punjab. UN agencies, government

ministries, departments and NGOs will work together to provide support to select groups of

home based workers in communities, which will enhance their market access, improve their

skills, enhance their capacity to earn decent wages and improve their access to social security

schemes amongst other things.

The focus of 2011 is on the endorsement of the HBW policy by the cabinet, advocacy on

incorporating HBWs concerns in Labour laws, support for the finalization of social protection

bill for HBWs and the execution of pilot projects for HBWs

Experience Sharing Workshop

Once all partners had started their interventions with their respective target groups and are in

different stages of implementation. It was a high time to convene a workshop at one of the

project areas to discuss various challenges faced by the implementing partners (IP) and add

value to their interventions.

For this purpose, a two-day workshop took place in Sialkot - organized by Baidarie – on

Saturday, 29th

January 2011.

The first day of the workshop was allocated for an internal review amongst five partner

agencies, ILO and UN-Women to review progress of all five partners and identify key

challenges, good practices and mutual learning.

The second day was budgeted for an advocacy workshop within Sialkot where all labour-

market stakeholders including Government, Workers, Employers, Media, and political

leadership of Sialkot were invited to highlight the significance of HBWs’ work and advocating

for their due rights.

Participants

For internal review, two officials from each partner agency (one from field and one from

Management) were invited for the workshop to share their experiences and field level learning

with other partners. ILO and UN-Women representatives were also there (list of participants is

attached at Annex-I)


On second day, the advocacy event was chaired by the Federal Minister for Women’s

Development, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan – who was elected from Sialkot as Member National

Assembly. More than 200 delegates from District and Provincial level government

departments, employers, civil society, academia and home-based workers were

also present.


Progress Review Meeting (29th January 2011)

The day began with recitation of verses from the holy Quran by Mr. Akram.

Welcome by Baidarie

After introduction of participants, Ms Hina Noureen, President Baidarie formally

welcomed the participants at Baidarie office. She thanked ILO and UN-WOMEN for

providing Baidarie Sialkot with the opportunity of being host for all of their partner

organizations. She hoped that this experience sharing event would create strong

linkages among partners and will help in evolving a regular platform for sharing of

experiences on regular basis with each other in the future. She requested the

participants to very kindly provide their feedback and identify areas of improvement in

the work being done by Baidarie for adding value to the ongoing work.

Comments by UN-Women

Addressing the participants Ms. Uzma Quresh said that this experience sharing event

has been designed on purpose. In fact, it

was felt that the organizations working

in partnership with ILO and UN-WOMEN

should share their experiences with

each other and get benefit of each

other’s lessons learnt during the field

operations. She added this exercise is

expected to surface the operational

problems being faced by the partner

organizations during implementation of

their relevant schemes.

ILO Remarks

Mr. Saad Gilani expressed his gratitude for all of the participating organizations joining

in this important workshop. He also thanked the participants for travelling all the way


from different parts of the country to Sialkot. He informed participants about the

background of this workshop and requested them to frankly present the actual facts

and figures before the house so that an understanding of actual field problems may be

developed for arriving at better planning of the initiatives and for taking appropriate

decisions.

Presentation by Baidarie

Mr. Arshid Mehmood Mirza Executive Director Baidarie Sialkot made a presentation

reflecting accomplishments, strengths and weaknesses of Baidarie during the

preceding 17 years. Presentation on Baidarie was followed by briefing on the project

titled “Integrated Support Program to Home Based Workers in Sialkot”. It included

rationale for the interventions, expected output results, methodology and the progress

made in accomplishment of the project objectives.

Mr. Arshid Mehmood Mirza said that thousands of women workers in Sialkot are

working in private and public sector offices. They work in every kind of institutions,

factories and home based units catering needs of local industry and business concerns.

They are contributing through their input to maximize the performance of the entire

range of social and economic service delivery mechanisms in sectors like health,

education, agriculture and banking in Sialkot however those who are stitching soccer

balls for the industry, in numbers surpass every other category of women workers in

the district.

He added that these Home-based Workers are a major part of informal workforce

which is temporarily engaged, retained unregistered, unprotected, isolated, and

unorganized. The structure of the

supply chain in soccer industry that

established the relationship between

the main manufacturing units and the

home-based workers makes it very

difficult to monitor the labour rights

issues.

As a first step for supporting these

Home-Based Workers, Baidarie has

conducted a detailed Baseline

Assessment on a group of 100 Home-

Based Workers in Sambrial Tehsil.

Highlighting the plight of the home

based women workers Mr. Mirza said


that the findings of the baseline assessment indicate that mostly young women

coming from the poor family background work as home based soccer stitchers. More

than half of them are un-married illiterate or less educated girls who work to

supplement their family income. They are not privileged enough to have vocational

training through some formal arrangements. Instead they have to rely on the coaching

provided by some skilled workers living and working in the family or neighborhood.

They get work orders from the middle persons and generally earn from Rs 2,001 to Rs

4,000 per month- an amount which is considerably less than the legal minimum wage

of Rs: 7,000 - determined by the law. Of course in the wake of ever increasing prices of

daily commodities they are highly dissatisfied with the wages they are presently

getting. No written employment contract is drawn between the middleman and the

home based workers to govern the terms of the toils of the workers. Almost all the

home based women soccer stitchers have to work while sitting in insufficient spaces

with inadequate arrangements for light, unbearable heat in summer and chilling cold

in winter seasons. Because of the bad conditions of work and improper sitting postures

they develop complaints of body and joint pains and related diseases.

Mr. Mirza said that the home based women soccer stitchers have very poor knowledge

of the labor rights and basic requisites of Occupational Safety and Health. They have

no knowledge of the rights to collective bargaining and/or formation of any

labor/workers union or association, Social Security, Employees Old Age Benefit,

Workers Welfare Fund and Group Insurance etc. They are however interested in

changing their profession if

they find some access to

suitable options and

opportunities for doing so.

Home based workers very

much desire to receive

training of some

alternative income

generating skill and want to

have access to the skill

application slots.

Mr. Arshid Mirza explained that it is inevitably crucial to bring the home based women

soccer stitchers out of the vicious cycle of poverty by pacing up the process of their

economic and social empowerment for enabling them to enjoy reasonable choices in

life.


Question Answer Session:

The briefing session by Mr. Arshid Mirza was followed by questions, queries and

suggestions etc. This question-answer was hosted by Mr. Arshid Mirza. Some of the

questions and their answers are given below.

Q: The poor people do not get motivated without material/tangible benefit. How did

you succeed in motivating them for group formation?

Baidarie mobilizes the communities through sensitization about the existence of their

basic problems and the needed measures to solve them. The content of the

discussions with the communities is picked from the realities of daily life. Actual

situations are placed before the community members and leading questions are put to

them so that they may come up with practical solutions for hitting upon the solutions.

Q: During football stitching female workers face different health problems. What are

you doing for solution of these kinds of problems?

Baidaries has set up its own hospital and local female workers get benefit of the

facilities provided there. Discussions are in progress with Sialkot Chamber of

Commerce Industries (SCCI) for provision of the social security facilities.

Q: What kind of help workers can obtain from SCCI related to low wages?

Home based women workers in facilitation with Baidarie and SCCI will negotiate with

the industrialists to get betterment in their wages and better working conditions.

Conclusion of the Experience Sharing Meeting

While summing up the deliberations of the session Mr. Saad Gilani highlighted the

following points:

• We should plan our activities keeping in view the local ground realities. These

should be implemented and monitored in close working partnership with the local

and directly related stakeholders. For better understanding of the problems and

their solutions dialogue sessions should be conducted between employees and

employers.

• Efforts to introduce ‘change’ in attitudes are gradual and incremental. The

implementing agencies should never try to dictate and impose their self-conceived

activities. Instead the interventions and activities must be designed and


implemented to cater the actual needs of the target beneficiaries through

indigenous modalities.

• Support should be obtained for blending the local and external knowledge for

securing the best possible results. The implementing agencies should always

remain ready to face every kind of challenge and should build-up networking with

other partner organizations to bring improvement in the work. We should not

adopt only project approach. We should work as volunteer for the long-term

benefit for the poor people.

• Partner organizations should keep an eye on the changing situations within their

local areas, region/province and at country level. Referring to the recent

constitutional developments in the form of 18th

Amendment, there would

significant changes in the Labour Market Governance which may require a changed

strategy for interaction with different stakeholders.

• We should work with existing institutions instead of creating parallel new

structures. Any intervention, for which there is an existing facility (e.g., trade

union, training institution or health facility) in the area, should be utilized,

strengthened and stimulated for better outreach to the most vulnerable

communities. Particularly mentioning the Government infrastructure, he

encouraged participants to work closely with them and inform them of all new

developments taking place in

the area – for their capacity

building and better outreach.

• Enhance the visibility of

interventions which inter alia

leads to better awareness of

masses and policy-makers on

the critical issues like home-

based workers.

Field Visit

After detailed discussions, the participants visited the project area and went to some

HBW households in village Korowal. During the field visit, the visitors met different

Home Based women workers and practically observed their living and working

conditions. They also asked several questions to have an assessment of their


employment practices and wages and benefits etc. Every household depicted a

different dimension of poverty and they had different stories – all converging on the

fact that they have least resources and least opportunities.

The home visits were followed by a meeting between the trip participants and a group

of home based workers. During the meeting every visitor introduced him/herself and

his/her Organization’s working details. They put different questions to the women

workers. Summary of the question-answer sessions is as under.

Q: What did you learn from Baidarie?

Answer: Baidarie taught us about our basic rights and that we can get these rights only

if we get our selves organized. We further learnt that we must get our rights. We have

to recognize ourselves and learn to raise our voice and wage struggle for securing our

rights. We want to get social security benefits, health facilities, education facilities and

pension facilities etc. Our employers pay low wages to us. We should be given fair

wages for our labor.

Q: Do you know the appropriate posture of sitting during the Soccer ball stitching?

We have no knowledge about it.

Q: What kind of health problems do you face because of football stitching?

We have to face different

kinds of health problems like

weakness of eye-sight,

stretching muscles, knee pain,

backache and Headache etc.

After discussion with the

group, Mr. Sa’ad Gilani and

Uzma inspected the record of

the group documents.

Winding up the discussions

with the group, Mr. Arshid Mahmood Mirza remarked it to be a very important

occasion because of the presence of the delegates coming from three provinces of the

country. He lamented that everybody violates the rights of the poor people but these


violations occur because of lack of unity in the ranks of the poor. If they get organized,

vigilant and active then no one can dare to usurp thei rights.

He cited the verses of holy Quran saying that God does never change the condition of

any such nation who herself does not make struggle to change her lot”. He further

added a quotation “God helps those who helps themselves”.

He made a very emphatic plea to all the HBWs to provide education to their children at

least till metric. He said that due to advancement in technology we have to keep pace

with the world otherwise we will remain alone and behind and would never be able

get rid of poverty and the exploitations coming in its lap.

Debriefing on Field Mission

After field visit Mr. Saad invited feedback from the participants one by one. Summary

of the participants’ feedback is as under.

� It was good to see that home based workers are committed to bring change in

their lives.

� Home based workers do not have any other option for job diversification. They

are totally dependent upon football stitching.

� Home based workers are well aware about different institutional facilities. The

credit goes to Baidarie for this extensive awareness raising.

� Home based workers have lot of trust upon Baidarie. This should not be

broken.

� Home Based workers are looking committed and have positive attitude.

� Appreciated Baidarie’s team work for building this kind of trust. This trust must

be maintained. It’s very sensitive matter. We have to work very consciously.

� Representatives from Baidarie welcomed all comments and pledged that they

would develop a mechanism so that peoples’ trust may not be broken. They

suggested to conduct a study to identify locally marketable income generating

skills and the slot for the application of such skills. They extended thanks for

the nice and kind words of appreciation and assured that Baidarie is ready to

render its services for all types of positive and productive work in the benefit of

home based women workers.


Progress Review by other Partners

Next session of the day was to review the progress made by other partners in their

respective areas. Representatives from each partner gave a brief description of their

interventions as follows:

a. HomeNet Pakistan

• HomeNet Pakistan is implementing similar project with Chik-makers in

Kasur District of Punjab

• A baseline for assessment of their pre-intervention status was completed

• The biggest issue for HBWs was the non-issuance of national identity cards.

HomeNet has facilitated their linkages with NADRA and the process has

started for issuing their ID cards

• HBWs were given Community-Management Skills Training and were

organized in form of Membership-Based Organization (MBO)

• HBWs are facilitated in linking up to different microfinance institutions

including Akhuwat, CWCD etc

• After motivation by HomeNet,

HBWs have started saving little

amount for rainy days.

Although magnitude of savings

is still very low.

• After linking up with NCHD, an

Adult Literacy Centre has been

established for HBWs in their

locality

• For education of HBWs,

advocacy with local affluent

people was carried out and got

three (3) kanals of land

donated for Girls High School

in the area

• A group of HBWs has been registered with Social Welfare Department of

vocational training


• NCHD and EDO (Health) have assured free health facility for HBWs at the

local RHC. For this purpose, EDO(H) would issue health cards to HBWs –

once they get their national ID cards

• BISP officials had a meeting with HBWs and assured them of their support.

Follow-up is in progress

• HBWs were informed about benefits of EOBI and they are motivated to get

registered under the Universal Registration Scheme – for which they are

ready.

• Linkages with other local NGOs are also established for HBWs and as a

result, different micro-infrastructure including street pavement and

sanitation are being improved

• HomeNet has also briefed the District Government about the HBWs issue

and the District Coordination Officer (DCO) has assured full support for any

initiative to help HBWs in the District

b. Rahnuma-FPAP

• FPAP-Rahnuma is working with 50 HBWs in Faisalabad – involved in making

bedsheets, pillow-covers and quilts for the textile factories

• They have recently completed Baseline Study which they promised to share

with ILO and UN-Women in a week time

• They have also conducted

meetings with Sanatzaar and

Khushali Bank for supporting

HBWs and got their

commitments

• They said that their prime

focus is to enhance incomes

of HBWs – for which they are

focusing on their skills

upgrading and linking them

to prospective markets

• Linkages were established

with Benazir Crisis Cell for legal facilitation

• Linkages established with Sarsabz Foundation for help in issuance of Social

Security Cards


• From its own resources, FPAP-Rahnuma has established a model Health

Clinic in the area – which is accessible for HBWs

• Khushali Bank has offered their services to HBWs under Poverty Alleviation

Funds

• HBWs are also being linked with new employers for enhancing their

productivity and bargaining terms

• The biggest challenge faced by FPAP-Rahnuma is to build Confidence and

Trust with communities – as communities are skeptical about the role of

FPAP

c. SAFWCO

• SAFWCO is working in

Hyderabad District of Sindh

- with HBWs involved in

making artificial bouquets

and recycling of clothes

• They have recently started

their interventions

• Had meetings with local

trade unions and lawyers

for possible linkages

• They have not started the

baseline study as yet

d. Thardeep Rural Development Program (TRDP)

• TRDP is working in

Umerkot District of Sindh –

with HBWs involved in

making handicrafts

• They have also started

recently and are in the

process of group formation

for HBWs

• They have the facility of

providing soft-loans to

communities under PPAF


• They have also facility of providing health coverage to HBWs in

collaboration with another NGO named HANDS

Assessment of Progress on “Decent Work Deficits” for HBWs

The last session of the long working day was to get feedback of participants on the

work carried out by Baidarie – in particular reference with the nine areas of Decent

Work Deficits and to know what other organizations have learnt from Baidarie and

plan to proceed on these areas. The representatives from four “visiting organizations”

were asked to sit in organization-specific groups and fill out a format which mentioned

the nine Decent Work Deficits and the performance of all partners against each area.

An analysis of this working is attached at Annex-3.


Advocacy Event for Home-Based Workers Hotel One Sublime Chowk, Sialkot: 30

th January 2011

Remarks by Chief Guest

Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Federal Minister for Women Development

Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan assured the home based women workers that Federal Ministry

of women development will be working in close collaboration with ILO and UN-

WOMEN to introduce a “National Policy for Home-Based Workers” and effect

legislation for generating such an atmosphere in which the process of economic and

social development of women workers may be reasonably paced up.

Dr. Firdous emphatically highlighted the need for taking practical steps to tangibly

deliver the much needed facilities to the poor. She was enormously critical of those

who use the name and vote of the poor to have access to the power and after getting

them elevated to the powerful offices at the cost of the poor, they forget their basic

constituencies.


The federal minister lamented that the poor continue to be exploited in an

atmosphere where “might is right” is becoming order of the day. She however assured

that the present government plans to take all the needed pro-poor steps for offering

them better choices in life. She acknowledged that home based workers are also

“workers” but unfortunately the prevalent legal framework do not accept them to be

so - hence they are not considered entitled for any kind of social security benefits and

old age pension. She said that she will bring the issue of exploitation of the home

based workers into the notice of the President of Pakistan and will seek his support for

necessary legislative and administrative measures to improve the lot of those

neglected women workers who, by virtue of their un-noticed hard toils considerably

contribute to the strength of the national economy.

Remarks by UN-Women

Mr Sagheer Bukhari, Senior Programme Officer

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Saghir Bukharie said that his organization would be

enhancing UN Program regarding home based workers for facilitating their access to

their vitally basic rights. He added that UN-WOMEN is supporting pilot initiatives in

Sialkot and other parts of the country for empowerment of the home based workers

and basing on the lessons learnt these models will be offered to the government

agencies for their replication and up-scaling in other parts of the country.

Remarks by ILO

Syed Saad Hussain Gilani, Project Manager TGP

Mr. Saad Gilani shared that in spite of equal population of men and women in

Paksitan, the share of women workers is hardly 27 percent. More than 70 of of the

working women work in agriculture sector and out of every 100 working women only

one woman works in Formal Economy. He persuaded the Federal Minister to bring the

details of the excesses meted out to women workers in to the notice of the policy and

decision makers in state structures and try to pace up legislation for providing access

to those rights to the home based women workers as are admissible to common

workers in the formal sectors of the national economy.


He briefly delineated upon ILO’s work in Pakistan – for promoting Decent Work in

close collaboration with Government, Employers and Workers organizations.

He also elaborated the purpose of pilot interventions on “Integrated Support to Home-

Based Workers” and the details of the five pilots in different parts of the country. He

informed the gathering that ILO and UN-Women are jointly supporting the Ministry of

Labour & Manpower to finalize draft National Policy on Home-Based Workers in line

with ILO Convention 177 and present the same for approval by Federal Cabinet – so

that HBWs could become eligible to claim their basic rights as workers. He requested

the Federal Minister to support this policy whenever it is presented in the Cabinet.

Presentation by Baidarie

Prof. Arshid Mehmood Mirza

Addressing the participants of the seminar Prof. Arshid demanded that Government of

Pakistan should take immediate steps to formulate and adopt National Policy on Home

Based Workers in line with the requirements of the ILO Convention 177. The federal

and provincial governments should also expedite necessary legislation and take much

needed administrative measures for accomplishment of the objectives of the policy for

the home based workers.

Prof. Mirza said that it is necessary that Home Based Workers should be legally

accepted as “workers” ensuring that they receive at least the legal minimum wage

prescribed by the government. It should be the legal requirement that working

environment is safe and hygienically up to the mark. There should be legal

arrangements in place that the home based workers have access to the social security,

old age pension, workers welfare grant and other privileges and entitlements.

Prof. Mirza said that in wake of the facts that due to shift of the soccer ball business to

other countries, sophistication of the production mechanisms and rapidly adopted

automations the requirements of soccer stitchers is fast decreasing in the Sialkot

Industry. It is feared that very soon thousands of home based women workers will lose

their major means to earn their livelihood. Hence it is necessary that access to

opportunities of job diversification should be facilitated for them. This may be done

through imparting training to them on marketable income generating skills and linking

the trained workers with job opportunities in the local markets.


Welcome Remarks

Ms Hina Noureen, President Baidarie

Addressing the house Ms. Hina Noureen shared the findings of the base line

assessment done by Baidarie Sialkot. She said that according to the findings of the

research study mostly the young females coming from the poor family background

were found working as home based stitchers in the soccer ball manufacturing industry.

Slightly more than half of this lot happens to be un-married illiterate or less educated

girls who work to supplement their family income. In addition to doing the home

based work, almost all of these women perform their domestic duties like cooking,

washing and cleaning the house but their performance at the domestic front gets

compromised because of their excessive engagements in home-based soccer stitching

work.

Ms. Hina said that there are no formal training arrangements for the beginners to

learn the soccer stitching skill. Home based soccer stitchers get work orders from the

middle persons and earn their bread in great difficulty. The employers/sub-

contractors do not issue any wage slip to the workers. The home-based women

workers are not satisfied with the wages they are getting presently. In their opinion

the wages are very low while the prices of essential commodities are increasing on day

to day basis without any reasonable and effective check on them.

“There exist no written employment contract between the middleman and the home

based workers to govern and regulate the employment practices and ensure

availability of labor rights. Almost all the home based workers work in uncomfortable

environment, insufficient space, improper light, and unbearable heat in summer and

chilling cold in winter seasons.” Ms. Hina added.

She said that the home based workers have complaints of body and joint pains and

related diseases due to uncomfortable sitting postures and working in unhealthy

environment. Their work requires them to meticulously engage their eye sight and

apply full force of their arms/shoulders related strength so that they may do fast

stitching and bind good knots. This kind of work causes them to suffer from body pains

etc. The study indicates that neither the home based workers have been trained on

the requirements of Occupational Safety and Health and use of Personal Protective

Equipment nor have they been provided with the needed Personal Protective

Equipment. The contractor/middleman provides them with no health care facilities.


They usually visit the Govt health care facilities where the condition of diagnostic and

curative facilities is just hopeless. The study indicates that the home-based women

workers do not have balanced diet intake.

Ms. Hina said that according to the findings of the research study the overwhelming

majority of the women workers expressed their interest to change their profession if

they find some access to suitable options and opportunities for doing so. They desired

to get training of some alternative income generating skill so that they may earn more

money to help and support in improvement of their socio-economic status.

The others who spoke on the occasion included Kahwaja Zaka-ud-din, Abdul Shakoor

Mirza, the women home based soccer stitchers and Rana Shahzad Ahmad.


Annex-1

Participants – Review Meeting

1. Mr. Saad Gilani International Labor Organization,

2. Mr. Sagheer Hussain Bukhari UN-WOMEN,

3. Ms. Uzma Quresh UN-WOMEN

4. Mr. Ikramullah Khan, UN-WOMEN

5. Mr. Muhammad Javed Pasha, Senior Programme Officer Home Net Pakistan

6. Ms. Nabeela Yaqoob, Programme Officer Home Net Pakistan

7. Ms. Madiha Kazi, Manager Enterprise Support Unit TRDP

8. Ms. Kulsoom Sindhu, Social Organizer, Umer kot TRDP

9. Mr. Abdul Rasheed Chandio, Project Coordinator SAWFCO

10. Ms. Shabana Imtiaz, Training Coordinator SAWFCO

11. Ms. Uzma Memon, Social Organizer SAWFCO

12. Ms. Mobeen Aslam, Project Manager Rahnuma FPAP

13. Mr. Farrukh Bashir, Program Officer Rahnuma FPAP

14. Ms. Hina Noureen Baidarie

15. Mr. Arshid Mehmood Mirza, Baidarie, Sialkot


Annex-2

AGENDA FOR REVIEW MEETING

Time Activity Facilitated by

Briefing and Experience Sharing at Baidarie Office

0900 hrs Recitation from Holy Quran Participant

0905 hrs Introduction of participants Participants

0915 hrs Welcome Note Baidarie

0920 hrs Objectives of meeting & agenda ILO & UN-Women

0930 – 1030 hrs Briefing by Baidarie on integrated support to

HBWs

Baidarie

1030 – 1045 hrs Tea Break

1045 – 1200 hrs Discussion and experience sharing Participants

1200 hrs Lunch Baidarie

Field Visit to Meet HBWs and Discuss issues

1300 hrs Departure for field Participants

1330 – 1500 hrs Discussion with HBWs and physical

observations of their working conditions

Participants

1500 hrs Plenary meeting: debriefing; Participants

1600 hrs Review of partner organizations ILO

1620 hrs Concluding remarks UN-Women

1630 hrs Refreshments / Tea Baidarie


Annex-3

Participants of Advocacy Workshop for HBWs

1. Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Federal Minister of Women Development, Government of

Pakistan Islamabad.

2. Mr. Saad Gilani, Project Manager TGP, International Labor Organization (ILO)

3. Mr. Sagheer Hussain Bukhari, Senior Program Officer, UN-WOMEN

4. Ms. Uzma Quresh, Program Officer, UN-WOMEN

5. Mr. Ikramullah Khan, Finance Assistant, UN-WOMEN

6. Kh. Zaka-ud-din Former President Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Sialkot

7. Mr. Mirza Abdul Shakoor Executive Director Community Development Concern

Sialkot.

8. Representatives of Partner Organizations (HomeNet, Rahnuma-FPAP, SAFWCO &

TRDP)

9. Ms Hina Noureen, Baidarie

10. Mr Arshid Mehmood Mirza, Baidarie ,

11. Home Based Women Soccer ball Stitchers (50+)

12. District Line Departments (20+)

13. Media and Academia (30+)


Annex-4

Progress Review on overcoming “Decent Work Deficits”

DW Deficit Baidarie Rahnuma-FPAP TRDP SAFWCO HomeNet Pakistan

Employment

Deficit

• Baidarie is looking for

alternate source of

employment – but did

not succeed as yet

• More employment

options can be

explored

• Awareness raised well

• Planning to impart

training in new skills

and increasing access

to market

• Plan to give training

on product

diversification

which hopefully

would help increase

orders

• Plan to raise

awareness for group

formation and get

employee benefits

from Government

• Developing

linkages with

market

Rights Deficit • After orientation

sessions, HBWs are

aware of their legal

rights and they are

planning to access

their rights through

organized forums

• Done a good job in this

area

• Will replicate the best

practice of Baidarie in

Faisalabad to make

HBWs aware of their

basic rights

• HBWs are not yet

aware at all about

their rights.

• Plan to engage legal

advisors, HomeNet

and Sabah Pakistan

• Plan to raise

awareness on

Labour Laws and ILO

conventions and

human rights

• Awareness raising

has completed and

linkages with other

partner

organizations on

going

Social

Protection

Deficit

• The process is ongoing

• Can be further

explored

• Awareness raised

adequately

• Need more !!!

• For this purpose,

facilitated linkages

with BBSCC and

Sarsabz and other

service providers and

NGOs

• Plan to develop

social protection

module for HBWs

• Will conduct

trainings and social

protection IEC

material

• Linkages developed

with EOBI, BISP,

Health and

Education

Departments for

benefiting HBWs

Representation • HBWs are organized in • Formed groups of • Hopefully, our • Preparing • Following the



Deficit formal groups – having

proper record

• HBWs are well

represented and are

well versed

• Done well on this front

HBWs and established

a permanent

representation channel

of HBW

beneficiary group

will be model for

further projects

communities for

representing their

work and activities

footprints and will

replicate the same

intervention

Growth Deficit • No tangible progress

as yet

• HBWs have shown that

there are growth

prospects and Baidarie

is guiding them

towards it

• Beneficiary HBWs will

be facilitated to

enhance their income

and improve working

conditions by skills

training and other

related courses

• All TRDP available

factors would be

used to ensure

growth of HBWs

• Community group

will be formed

• Have organized the

community and

developed local

leadership to guide

the community

towards growth

Lack of Access

to Financial

resources

• Process is on going

• Linkages with

microfinance should be

developed

• Linkages required with

MFIs, BISP, EOBI and

WWF

• Depending on support

organizations

• Held a meeting with

microfinance

institutions to facilitate

HBWs in getting small

loans. Follow-up

required

• Plan to provide soft

loans, BISP and

microfinance

projects

• Will develop linkages

with MFIs, BISP,

EOBI and Workers

welfare Fund

• Success of linkages

depend on support

organizations

Absence of Fair

Wage System

• This seems challenging

as there is no

substitute employment

in the area

• Plan to give trainings

on fair wage and

linkage with other

networks

• It is being done by

having awareness

raising sessionswith

HBWs and middle-

persons

• Plan to link the

HBWs with Sabah,

HomeNet and trade

unions focusing on

fair wages as well as

give training

• Hold dialogues with

trade union and

other stakeholders

for minimum

standard wages for

HBWs

•



Lack of

freedom of

association

and bargain

• Awareness, as a first

step, is there.

• HBWs are aware of

thei fact that they lack

the freedom of

association and

bargain. Linkages with

trade union should be

developed

• Created space for the

community for

freedom of association

and bargaining

• Need more !!!

• Awareness raising

sessions are ongoing

• Plan to link HBWs

with trade unions

and advocate for

them

• Plan to conduct

training and

awareness session

for freedom of

association and

bargaining

• Connected HBWs

with market and

arranged business

management skills

training

Occupational

Safety &

Health hazards

• Performed well on this

point. Provided health

service from existing

facility – owned by

Baidarie

• Further trainings are

planned

• Further support is

required in this sector

• Will be dealt via

various activities

planned in work plan

and meeting sessions

• Occupational

therapist would be

engaged

• Planning to conduct

training and

awareness sessions

Any other • Good rapport

developed with

communities and seem

committed

• Learnt how to build

rapport with

communities – with

commitment

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